Give Jeremy Bates credit. At least the Jets offensive coordinator has a sense of humor. Ask him the biggest issue he has faced over the first three weeks of the season and he’ll point to repeated problems with his headsets.
“Three times our headsets failed us,” Bates said Thursday at the Jets’ practice facility in Florham Park. “I’m not throwing anyone under the bus, but the button stopped working. We’ve tried to correct it. Obviously, we understand that can happen anytime, especially in New England.”
Later he deadpanned about technology: “I’ve always said, you can FaceTime people in China, but our headsets go out.”
The comic relief was needed during a review of the Jets’ second-half collapse against the Browns last Thursday, when they blew a 14-0 lead and lost 21-17. It was a disaster all the way around. The defense got much of the blame for rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield coming off the bench to rally the Browns to their first victory since December 2016. But the Jets would have secured their second win of the season if the offense did anything productive in the second half.
It wasn’t a great day for Jets rookie quarterback Sam Darnold, who was 15-of-31 for 169 yards, no touchdowns and two late interceptions for a quarterback rating of 38.2. Darnold now has three touchdowns and five interceptions on the season.
Bates blamed Darnold’s struggles on the growing pains of being a rookie starting quarterback.
“We’ve got to go through our progression faster,” Bates said. “We’ve got to believe in it and he’s going to continue to do that. Obviously, he’s still young, but when he believes in his progression and he believes in his stroke, good things happen.”
Here’s the deal: In one breath, the Jets want to treat Darnold like any other starting quarterback, giving him a full playbook to work with. But the reality is he is a 21-year-old rookie whose quarterback rating has dipped from 116.8 in the season-opening win over the Lions to 74.6 in Week 2 to half that against the Browns. If the trend continues, it’s frightening to think what his rating will be against a tough and aggressive Jaguars defense Sunday in Jacksonville.
It’s Bates’ job as much as it is Darnold’s to reverse that trend. Nothing worked in the second half against the Browns. Part of that is on Darnold. Part of it is on Bates. The running game, which worked so well in the first half, was a non-factor in the second. Momentum shifted to Mayfield and the Browns, and the Jets never got it back with a long sustained drive.
“You can always look back and keep growing,” Bates said. “We came out in the third quarter and lost a little bit of our tempo. We stalled in the third quarter. We’re working on that this week because we can’t do that. As coaches we have to look back and see what we could have done better. We’re all in this together.”
The Jags have to be licking their chops at the thought of facing Darnold after his performance against the Browns. They are a confident veteran group that has the second-rated defense in the AFC and fourth overall in the NFL. They are softer against the run (21st) than they are against the pass (third).
A more experienced offense might be confident in how to attack the Jags, but the Jets are still learning about themselves, a process Bates said could take most of the season.
“We’re not going to know exactly who we are until the last week,” he said. “We’ll continue to grow as an offense and we’ll continue to see different players in different positions. The offense has to continue to grow. If you don’t do that, then teams will adjust to you.”
Developing Darnold is the Jets primary objective, which means not shattering his confidence with outings like the second half against the Browns. Bates must find a way to give him the best chance to succeed, whether the headsets are working or not.